REMARKABLE SKILL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20078, 26 October 1939, Page 7

REMARKABLE SKILL

SNOOKER CHAMPION VISIT TO GISBORNE IT. LINDRUM’S PLAY The holder of the world’s unofficial snooker record, Horace Lindrum, of Goulburn, N.S.W., is visiting Gisborne in the course of his first tour of New Zealand.

Remarkable skill was displayed by Lindrum in a demonstration of snooker and billiards played before a large number of followers of the sport in the Alhambra Saloon last evening. The visitor gave an all-round exhibition at billiards and snooker and in the course of the evening he played several of the foremost local players. His best break at billiards was 329 and at snooker 90.

In the snooker exhibition Lindrum’s positional play was uncanny and often gained him rounds of applause. His break of 90 was a masterly effort and there is no doubt that he would have passed the hundred mark but for two red balls being in difficult positions. At the conclusion of the snooker and billiards exhibition the visitor demonstrated a variety of trick shots.

Interest in Billiards

During the past five weeks Lindrum had been on a tour of the North Island and, speaking to a Herald representative this morning, he stated that he had noticed that there was more interest in the sport in the Dominion than in any other country he had visited and he had found the playing conditions generally to be of a higher standard than those in many centres overseas. His opinion was based on experience in many lands, for he had recently completed a five-year tour cf England, the Continent and South Africa.

Lindrum, who is only 27 years of age, has a fine record of performances in the sport. Last year he was runnerup in the world snooker Championship in England, losing to Joe Davis by 37 to 35 games. The unofficial world’s record break made by Lindrum was 141

•He has achieved much success at billiards, too, and is the present holder of the record break for Scotland, a break of 1008. His personal record is a break of 1431 made in Melbourne. An even more successful player at snooker, Lindrum has shown something of his outstanding skill since coming to New Zealand, having scored breaks of more than a century on six occasions. The highest break was one of 128 in Frankton, where he cleared the table from the break-up.

As a prominent billiard and snooker player, .Lindrum is upholding the tradition of his family, for his uncle, Walter Lindrum, is even more widely known in the sport. Horace Lindrum, who is accompanied on his present tour by Mr. H. L. Cameron, secretary of tfte Wellington Billiards Association, leaves Gisborne to-morrow morning for Wairoa.